Mercy Graves
History Mercy Graves: ~2000 BCE - Present Before she was known as Mercy Graves, this woman was the daughter of Myrina the Black, a chieftess of Themyscira, born on the sovereign of the Amazons some four-thousand or so years ago. At her naming ceremony, after she was weighted and tested before the priestesses and found lacking, Myrina chose her name to be 'Yosha', which was the word for 'Mercy' in Myrina's old tribal tongue for it was a 'mercy' of Myrina to allow such a weak child to live. Childhood did not get any better for young Yosha. The other sisters in her mother's clan did not afford Yosha any of the mercy for which she was named. She was harassed and bullied constantly, even beaten and left for dead several times while on forced hunting trips with her peers. When she came of age and should have been allowed to go to the world to complete her first ritual of womanhood, Myrina kept Yosha behind on the island, saying that Yosha had not earned the right. Yet, for all her mother could not see, Yosha was smart. Perhaps among the smartest of the amazons of her time. Yosha knew the real reason. She knew her mother felt that Yosha was not fit to graduate from daughter to mother and Myrina did not want Yosha's 'inferior' blood to diminish the clan's potency. Without having undertaken Hera's Rite, Yosha was sentenced to an eternity of menial tasks, deemed undesirable to the other proud warriors and assassins of Myrina's tribe. Eventually, Yosha settled into the life of the clan gravedigger as it allowed her to live among the crypts where she was at least afforded solitude and seemed to have been forgotten by her mother and her minions. An added bonus was the chance to read as often as she wanted and study the cadavers to learn their secrets. However, Yosha had another plan. For two hundred years, she read books and scrolls on the subject of astronomy and sailing, she had studied the languages of man, and memorized the most recent reports on all the different nations. The day would come where one of Myrina's warriors had been felled by a lion in a hunting trip and when her body was taken to the graveyard, there was no grave digger to dispose of the body. Yosha had fled in the night some weeks before, and not a soul had noticed. Yosha changed her name many times, living dozens of lives, but its meanings never changed. She was 'Mercy of the Graves', and she would use that name to push herself to new heights time and again. This mindset and her royal amazon blood carried her to the modern age where she found herself working for Lionel Luthor and caring for his exquisite, though rarely used mansion in Smallville. When his son Lex moved in, Mercy found someone who truly saw her potential, refusing to ever let him down. After Themyscira revealed itself to the world, Mercy naturalized herself as an official American citizen (with the help of Luthor's lawyers) and outed herself as an amazon to the world. Today, she is more than a mere amazon, she is a titan of business and politics and still at Lex's side.Oracle Files: Mercy Graves Threat Assessment Resources * Expert in Matters of Business & Government * Expert Driver & Mechanic * Expert Martial Artist & Markswoman * Trained Surgeon (non-practicing) * Expert in Stealth & Infiltration * Near-Photographic Memory * Expert in Logistics & Administration * Speaks 30+ Languages * Sophisticated Robotic Right Arm. Trivia and Notes Trivia * Mercy's nickname "Vanilla" is a nickname that Lex gave Mercy when he was still getting used to his staff when he first moved to Smallville. Notes * Mercy Grave's look in Earth-27 is based on Tao Okamoto, who portrayed her in the film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. * Mercy Graves first appeared in Superman: The Animated Series. When she first appeared in the comics she became an Amazon. * Being an expert driver might be a nod to Superman: The Animated Series where she was dressed as a chauffeur. * Having a robotic right arm is a nod to the Young Justice animated series. * In the comics she used the alias Vanilla when she briefly joined Infinity Inc. * Her birthdate is a nod to her first appearance in Superman The Animated Series episode "A Little Piece of Home". Links and References * Appearances of Mercy Graves * Character Gallery: Mercy Graves Category:Characters Category:Amazons Category:Immortality Category:LuthorCorp Category:Multilingualism Category:Martial Arts Category:Bisexual Characters Category:Widowed Characters Category:National Category:Secretaries Category:Bodyguards Category:Missing Limb Category:Driving Category:Marksmanship Category:Brown Eyes Category:Black Hair Category:Female Characters Category:Height 5' 9" Category:27th Reality